Return to Transcripts main page
Live From...
Armed Aircraft Patrol America to Intercept Danger
Aired July 04, 2003 - 13:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Eyes in the sky, planes on patrol, all to protect you this holiday weekend. U.S. combat patrols over Washington, New York and some major U.S. cities, courtesy of a North Dakota Air National Guard unit.
It all began after the 9/11 attacks. Now CNN's Jeanne Meserve goes along for the ride.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are weapons of war. Fighter aircraft armed with missiles. And they're flying somewhere over the U.S. every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surprising and surreal, I would call it. And I just didn't expect I'd be over my own city with a live weapon on an airplane.
MESERVE: Kidd (ph), of the North Dakota Air National Guard, has flown 100 combat air patrols, known as CAPs. He took CNN along in an F-16 to take a look.
During the more than 30,000 CAP sorties since 9/11, there have been 396 interceptions of suspicious aircraft. None of them turned out to pose a terrorist threat, but what if one did?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it doesn't respond and it's really truly a threat, then they're going to decide, you know, on the ground that it's not acceptable and, you know, they're going to have us engage a target.
MESERVE: Ninety-five percent of the time, Kidd says, the flying is boring. Boring, but critical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The consequences of failing at this are large, and very visible. And deadly, that's the bottom line.
MESERVE: Because the patrols don't allow pilots to practice the difficult tactical maneuvers needed for combat, a recent general accounting office report says they could eventually erode military readiness.
The CAPs wear out equipment and personnel and they aren't cheap: $4,000 to $8,000 per hour of flight time, depending on the aircraft.
The number of caps have been cut back. They now fly irregularly. When and where is determined at the headquarters for the continental U.S. NORAD region in Tendall (ph), Florida, based on threat and intelligence information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We randomly pick cities, critical infrastructure, population centers where we think they're most vulnerable.
MESERVE: Since these patrols were first scrambled on 9/11, there have not been any more attacks, but we will most likely never know if that's because of security measures on the ground or in the air.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, somewhere over the eastern U.S.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
Aired July 4, 2003 - 13:10 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
KYRA PHILLIPS, ANCHOR: Eyes in the sky, planes on patrol, all to protect you this holiday weekend. U.S. combat patrols over Washington, New York and some major U.S. cities, courtesy of a North Dakota Air National Guard unit.
It all began after the 9/11 attacks. Now CNN's Jeanne Meserve goes along for the ride.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEANNE MESERVE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): They are weapons of war. Fighter aircraft armed with missiles. And they're flying somewhere over the U.S. every day.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Surprising and surreal, I would call it. And I just didn't expect I'd be over my own city with a live weapon on an airplane.
MESERVE: Kidd (ph), of the North Dakota Air National Guard, has flown 100 combat air patrols, known as CAPs. He took CNN along in an F-16 to take a look.
During the more than 30,000 CAP sorties since 9/11, there have been 396 interceptions of suspicious aircraft. None of them turned out to pose a terrorist threat, but what if one did?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If it doesn't respond and it's really truly a threat, then they're going to decide, you know, on the ground that it's not acceptable and, you know, they're going to have us engage a target.
MESERVE: Ninety-five percent of the time, Kidd says, the flying is boring. Boring, but critical.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The consequences of failing at this are large, and very visible. And deadly, that's the bottom line.
MESERVE: Because the patrols don't allow pilots to practice the difficult tactical maneuvers needed for combat, a recent general accounting office report says they could eventually erode military readiness.
The CAPs wear out equipment and personnel and they aren't cheap: $4,000 to $8,000 per hour of flight time, depending on the aircraft.
The number of caps have been cut back. They now fly irregularly. When and where is determined at the headquarters for the continental U.S. NORAD region in Tendall (ph), Florida, based on threat and intelligence information.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We randomly pick cities, critical infrastructure, population centers where we think they're most vulnerable.
MESERVE: Since these patrols were first scrambled on 9/11, there have not been any more attacks, but we will most likely never know if that's because of security measures on the ground or in the air.
Jeanne Meserve, CNN, somewhere over the eastern U.S.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TO ORDER A VIDEO OF THIS TRANSCRIPT, PLEASE CALL 800-CNN-NEWS OR USE OUR SECURE ONLINE ORDER FORM LOCATED AT www.fdch.com
